World Cup Fever II

I have not been updating my blog due to the world cup fever. For the past 2 weeks, I have ben naping in the afternoon so that I will be able to stay up for the 10pm game and then go to bed, wake up at 2.30am to catch the next game. It has been a routine for me and I have zilch energy left for blogging.

Watching football has its ups and downs, highs and lows. I was left heart broken when my beloved Italy did not even got into round 2. Then there was my 2nd team- England, which has performed below par for this World Cup. I was not shocked at the exit of the England team but certainly find the scoreline of 4-1 loss to Germany unacceptable. Much criticisms have been aimed at the egregrious mistake made by the referee, which has drawn the ire of many. I, too, was irked. While no one would know for sure what the final result for that game would be had the goal been allowed, I am quite sure that England would never lift the cup this year, judging by their performances. They are just dismal and pathetic.

Ok, so much for the world cup. The world cup is taking a respite for a day and that means, I have the time to post whatever I had wanted to for the past few days. Let me recall what I have been doing in my kitchen for these few days. Bread, as usual, some more kaya, this time using gula melaka and swiss roll!( to be continued...)

Mashed Potato Bun and Sweet Corn Bread

World Cup Fever- cooling it down

What is the hottest topic in town recently? Definitely the World Cup! Ok, I confessed. I am one of those who has caught the fever, staying up late nights and waking in the wee hours to catch 22 men chasing one ball (that is how non football fan view this world's most loved game, isn't it?) I must say after more than 2 weeks of ball chasing (not on the pitch but by the side of my TV set), the regime has taken a toll on my body. I find that my throat is starting to parch and the heat in my body is rising. I guess the yin and yan are not in sync now. Sigh... so today's soup of the day is vital. Well, it may not be the best remedy, but it helps in abating the heatiness in my body albeit not the soul in the ball chasing... Come on!!!

Apple Soup (vegetarian version)

Ingredients:
3-4 red apples (try not to use China Fuji apples)-cut into chunks
1 large carrot-cut into chunks
a handful of nanxing and beixing (sweet and bitter almonds)
2 honey dates
10 wu hua guo
1 /2pc tangerine peel (optional)
mock meat
water

Wash all ingredients.  Boil sufficient water in pot. Put in all ingredients and boil for 2 hours over low heat. Before serving, add salt to taste.

This soup is healthy and easy to make. Enjoy!

Kueh Pisang

This is one of my favourite nonya kueh when I was a teenager. However, it is difficult to find this kueh nowadays. Even if you can find, most of those sold are not palatable, either the kueh is too hard or it is not fragrant enough. I have this recipe which I think makes the kueh to a perfect T, not too hard nor too soft. At least, to me, this is the most perfect recipe that I have gotten for this kueh. So I am sharing this recipe for those who would like to try. It is pretty easy. So do give it a try.

Ingredients:

(A)

200g Thick coconut milk

350g water

80g sugar

(B)

90g Hoon Kueh Flour

200g water

(C)

4pcs of bananas cut into slices

Banana leaves cut into 15cmx20cm

1. Mix (B) till smooth.
2. Boil (A) till sugar melts. Slowly pour in (1), stirring all the time with low heat.
3. When the mixture thickens, remove pan from heat.
4. Spoon about 2tbs of mixture onto banana leaves. Top with a slice of banana. Spoon another 2tbs of mixture on top of the banana.
5. Wrap the banana leaf up into a rectangle parcel.
6. Chill in the fridge till set. Enjoy!

      

Soft Plain Bread Loaf

I am into the mood of making plain loaf breads recently. Part of the reason is due to the dumpling festival which falls on today. I cannot eat dumplings for breakfast as they may cause bloatedness and are a tad too oily. My family and I, we all have pretty weak digestive systems. Thus, our diets are normally more prone to less oil and healthier versions. So, I made this plain bread loaf which will go well with my kaya. This is really soft and nice. I really like the texture of the bread.

Coffee raisin buns

As I have mentioned before, coffee buns are one of my favourites and I never get tired making or eating them. Perhaps it is due to the fact that I am a coffee lover and I find bread made with coffee are just so versatile. You can add raisins, almond, prunes or without anything and it still tastes just as good. So, these are the coffee buns for my breakfast with a cup of what else but Coffee!

This recipe is made with 'tang zhong' (water roux). Somehow or other, I always feel that coffee bread made with water roux are not as soft as other breads made form water roux. I wonder why. But as long as they are not rock buns, I still love the taste.

I would also like to mention here that most of my recipes easily available from blogs of other bloggers. That is why I seldom post up recipes. Another reason is I am really slow in typing so please excuse me. But if I find a particularly good recipe which I obtained somewhere, I would post it up and share with everyone.

Dumplings galore and kaya (碱水粽, 娘惹粽, 咖椰）

It's Dumpling Festival again this Wednesday. Nowadays, there are dumplings with a variety of flavours with some really exotic ones. I have never tried those innovative creations and still prefer the traditional type. As my dad is a Baba, I would consider myself a half nonya. From young, I have grown up eating nonya dumplings made by my mum and somehow or other, I cannot accustomed myself to accept other types of dumplings. But I like the teochew style dumplings which my maternal grandmother used to make. The teochew dumplings encase ingredients like pork, chestnuts, mushrooms and most importantly, tau sar. However, ever since my grandmother passed away many years back, I rarely have the chance to savour the teochew dumplings again.

One other must have in my family is 'kee chang'. It is healthier and does not contain any traces of oil. For me, 'kee chang' goes really well with kaya and I cannot do without kaya if I were to eat 'kee chang'. Without kaya, I would rather not eat 'kee chang' at all! That's how fussy I am with my affair with 'kee chang'. I must confess that I do not know how to make nonya dumplings and kee chang. It was always my mum who does the frying of ingredients, preparation and wrapping. I am just her assistant for such occasions, helping with washing of leaves and cutting ingredients. I started learning the wrapping skill about 3 years back. Now, I have been promoted (by myself) from just helping with the cutting to wrapping the dumplings. So knowing that my mum will be making the dumplings this weekend, I decided to make my kaya to accompany my kee chang. Making kaya is a tedious task which requires patience, stamina (to keep stirring constantly for an hour or more) and the sheer love of it. The irony is, I am not a great fan of kaya. The only time I can't do without it is when eating 'kee chang'. Weird, isn't it?

These are the 'kee changs'

And nonya dumplings

Mantou

Mantou is just like plain bao without any filling. Like bread, it tastes good if you spread jam or peanut butter on it. But I like it just plain so that I can taste the aroma of fermented dough. These mantous are made using the same recipe as the one I used for making the porcupine baos some time back.

Hamburger buns, brown sugar plain loaf and.... whoof.... whoof....

I am getting a little lazy in posting these few days but still enthusiastically engaged in my baking rituals. So what have I baked? As usual, I cannot get by without baking breads. I have just bought a bottle of peanut butter spread and thus decided that I should bake something simple and plain so as to make good use of the peanut butter. These humdrum hamburgers may look unenticing but they surely will taste different with a generous spread of peanut butter sandwiched between. The brown sugar plain bread alike... yummy!

And then there are these cute little doggy cookies that I simply had to have my hands on making them. They are just so adorable and tasty!

Ingredients:

180g butter
80g horlicks
200g plain flour
25g corn flour
25g milk powder
some chocolate rice, chocolate chips and Koko Krunch

Method:
Pre-heat oven to 140deg C. Sieve flour, corn flour and milk powder.
Cream butter and Horlicks for about three minutes at low speed. Do not overbeat.
Mix in flour, cornflour and milk powder to form dough.
Divide dough into 10g each and roll into balls.
Use two pieces of Koko Krunch to form the 'ears', chocolate rice for the "eyes", and a chocolate chip in the centre for the 'nose'. Bake at 140 deg C for about 25 minutes.

Orange butter cake

One of the butter cakes on my radar but never to got to bake it. Finally, today I got down to bake this cake for my relatives. But I think I had used the wrong pan size resulting in the height of the cake a tad too low. However, I find the taste good and I hope they will like the tingy and refreshing orange taste and smell.

Coffee Bread

Remember the craze over 'coffee boy' some years back? It is coffee bread topped with a layer of biscuit like crust with the decadent butter oozing out when you bite the bread. It took bread lovers by storm and long queues could be seen outside the sales counter. Somehow, the popularity has tapered. Nonetheless, I still love this bread but without the encased butter as I feel it is a bit overpowering. I prefer just the topping with the coffee bread. I made the bread into 2 big pieces in the shape of heart. It is best eaten about an hour after it's baked because the topping is still a little crispy and the bread soft. A great treat for tea break and breakfast!